Open Orphan plc (ORPH ) has won a £2.5 million contract to conduct an Influenza human challenge study for a US biotechnology company.
The study is expected to commence at hVIVO’s 24-bedroom quarantine clinic in East London during 2H20 and to be fully completed by year end 2021.
The Company stated ‘this contract builds on the Company’s recent challenge study contract wins in RSV and COVID-19’ and clearly demonstrates the breadth of Open Orphan’s service offering and the expertise within the Group as a world leader in its field.
For this study, Venn Life Science’s Paris team will complete the biometrics, demonstrating how the various parts of the Open Orphan plc Group can work together to deliver high-quality services to clients. Venn’s Paris team are highly regarded in the field as one of the leading providers in this area which is a perfect complement to the London offering.
Cathal Friel, Executive Chairman, Open Orphan, said: “We are delighted to be conducting this influenza challenge study, recent events have highlighted the importance of treatments for viral infections such as influenza and we are seeing an increased level of interest amongst both pharma and biotech in developing innovative new vaccines, antivirals, and therapeutics.
The Company is pleased to be continuing to deliver on our pipeline of opportunities. This has been due to the exceptional work from the hVIVO team, building on the Company’s long history as the world leading challenge study provider. Both the team and I are excited to see the progress being made by the Group and look forward to continuing the momentum as we rapidly grow the business to maximise shareholder value.”
Shares in ORPH have performed exceptionally strongly since the first CV19 study in March at 6p to close at 26.75p yesterday.
3 Reasons to Follow Open Orphan:
Open Orphan is a rapidly growing CRO pharmaceutical services company which is the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals through the use of human challenge clinical trials.
Open Orphan comprises of two commercial specialist CRO services businesses, hVIVO and Venn Life Sciences and is also building out a valuable data platform business. All businesses are now working closely together to offer upselling and cross selling opportunities.
World Class Facilities
Open has Europe's only 24-bedroom quarantine clinic with onsite virology providing individually isolated rooms and specialist laboratory facilities. The hVIVO facility offers highly specialised virology and immunology laboratory services to support pre-clinical and clinical respiratory drug, antiviral, and vaccine discovery and development.
Largest Test Portfolio
The Company has a leading portfolio of 8 viral challenge study models, which are: 2 FLU, 2 RSV, 1 HRV, 1 Asthma, 1 cough and 1 COPD viral challenge models. As announced in early March 2020, Open Orphan is also rapidly advancing a number of Coronavirus challenge study models and expects to be helping many COVID-19 vaccine development companies to test their vaccines.
No other company in the world has such a portfolio, with only two competitors globally having 1 challenge study model each. hVIVO also works with companies in the UK and Ireland to provide COVID-19 testing to staff to protect staff and customers from a workplace COVID-19 outbreak through its COVID Clear offering.
Rapidly Expanding Market with Regular Positive Newsflow
The market for vaccine development and testing has grown rapidly over the past six months, largely due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
However, Open Orphan now believes Governments and International pharmaceutical companies around the world will be making enormous ‘catch-up investments’ in all types of vaccine development to ensure the effects of any pandemic can be mitigated in the future, which should result in the hIVO facility being booked out for months, if not years, in advance going forward.
The Company is committed to providing regular Newsflow to ensure investors of all classes are fully briefed on the Investment opportunity for Open Orphan.